The VideoLAN Forums

Since 0.9x has come out I've noticed a steady decrease in the quality of the playback, sound stutter, video sync/stutter, the smoothness the GUI responds when you click a video to have it open, really jerky and not fluid at all opening.

It seems like the eye candy on 0.9x has taken some precedence over performance here...

From a gut perspective here, it seems like it's starting to get a bit bloated. I like VLC in the past, lightweight and fast, that doesn't seem to be the order of the day anymore...

I hope soon the quality is going to return, so far I have installed and uninstalled 2 versions of 0.9x and returned to 0.8.6.i

I know you guys are doing your best and VLC is still a great app, just not as good as it use to be...

QT4 isn't there for eyecandy. It is there to fix issues that wxWidgets has and to make cross platform coding little easier.

If you dislike QT4, use skin2 interface.

What performance are you noticing ?

To me 0.9 is way faster to start but a bit slower to seek.

I just moved to old version as 0.8.6 It is great performance in my system.although,0.9.x version running
in my system is so slow when i clicking the vlc icon.it is so slow to start.no problem with playback but volume controller is horrible.Sound doesn`t seem bigger when i turn up the volume(it does not work precisely as well)

Agree 100%. It is true that there are many more options - some sensible, some not - but 0.8.6 has much better performance

Manni

Agree 100%. It is true that there are many more options - some sensible, some not - but 0.8.6 has much better performance

Manni

Better performance in WHAT?

Seriously, those kinds of posts are useless. Those vague assumptions are useless to anyone.

Some issues I've come across:

Playlist
The file system sorts files and folders in some wierd order. Files get mixed up with folders, see image.

http://i38.tinypic.com/2rgnb74.jpg

This seems to be the default view.

I would like to change the info displayed in the playlist but how that would be done I have no idea.

By default title, length and album are displayed. I'd like to change it so it would only show the filename, which is also not the file "title" (note: not the enire directory path).

Also adding files through the playlist windows has some issues.

If I try to add an album with files named 01 - Song1.mp3, 02 - Song2.mp3 ... and so on the playlist mix them up at random. (08, 06, 04, 01)

Anyway I'll live through, at least I can use the default GUI without crashing VLC.

P.S. Sking2 causes an insta-crash

On my end:
1) Vlc takes more time to start.
2) Vlc takes more time to open and start playback, skipping more of the initial frames in the process, of any type of video file (for the first time, if i stop and press play it plays fine) than 0.8.6x did.
3) Vlc takes more time to respond to and skips more frames than 0.8.6 for commands like pause/unpause and seeking.
4) Vlc skips a lot more frames than 0.8.6 did when the first dialogue on a subtitle appears. Sometimes it skips a whole 2 seconds or more, the first dialogue never appearing altogether if it lasts less time than that.

Other than that, and the folder ordering thingy, it seems to work well.
Haven't tested with skins2 or loading rmvb files yet.

Windows xp sp2, amd duron@892MHz, 512MB ram, on-board audio audio and video.

Some issues I've come across:

Playlist
The file system sorts files and folders in some wierd order. Files get mixed up with folders, see image.

http://i38.tinypic.com/2rgnb74.jpg

This seems to be the default view.

This is fixed in 0.9.4.

I would like to change the info displayed in the playlist but how that would be done I have no idea.

By default title, length and album are displayed. I'd like to change it so it would only show the filename, which is also not the file "title" (note: not the enire directory path).

Also adding files through the playlist windows has some issues.

If I try to add an album with files named 01 - Song1.mp3, 02 - Song2.mp3 ... and so on the playlist mix them up at random. (08, 06, 04, 01)

Anyway I'll live through, at least I can use the default GUI without crashing VLC.

You can reorder the column and add new ones with right clicking on it..

On my end:
1) Vlc takes more time to start.
2) Vlc takes more time to open and start playback, skipping more of the initial frames in the process, of any type of video file (for the first time, if i stop and press play it plays fine) than 0.8.6x did.
3) Vlc takes more time to respond to and skips more frames than 0.8.6 for commands like pause/unpause and seeking.
4) Vlc skips a lot more frames than 0.8.6 did when the first dialogue on a subtitle appears. Sometimes it skips a whole 2 seconds or more, the first dialogue never appearing altogether if it lasts less time than that.

Other than that, and the folder ordering thingy, it seems to work well.
Haven't tested with skins2 or loading rmvb files yet.

Windows xp sp2, amd duron@892MHz, 512MB ram, on-board audio audio and video.

1) If VLC takes more than 0.5second to start your cache or your install is corrupted. This hasn't changed from 0.8 to 0.9.
2) Open should be instantaneous for the same reason.
3) Seeking can be slower, but 1.0 is fixing that.
4) Does your CPU peak ?

1) If VLC takes more than 0.5second to start your cache or your install is corrupted. This hasn't changed from 0.8 to 0.9.

That is not true that it has to be the cache or install is corrupt, I have tested 0.9 on two different boxes with totaly different hardware setups and configurations, and 0.9 opens and responds just as sluggish on each box in the same, so I highly doubt on two fresh installs running the application for the first time is going to end up with some sort of corruption, HIGHLY unlikely...

Well I stated issues I have seen, so I'll say it again:

Decrease in the quality of the playback, sound stutter on occassion along with video stutter. The smoothness the GUI responding when you open it, also once you are playing a movie and move around in the GUI, as an example going to full screen and chaning, and changing aspects, the GUI isn't as smooth and fast responding as 0.8.6.

0.8.6i is all around smoother running in every aspect I have seen, GUI responsiveness and video/audio playback. This is why I stated the bloat because the change of the skins and more things added into seems to have dragged the application down.

No, if any start, except the first one is slow, you have a big installation issue.

The new GUI is faster to start and the playback is less CPU intensive in .9.4 than in 0.8.6.

The first start is longer because you have more plugins.

On my end:
1) Vlc takes more time to start.
2) Vlc takes more time to open and start playback, skipping more of the initial frames in the process, of any type of video file (for the first time, if i stop and press play it plays fine) than 0.8.6x did.
3) Vlc takes more time to respond to and skips more frames than 0.8.6 for commands like pause/unpause and seeking.
4) Vlc skips a lot more frames than 0.8.6 did when the first dialogue on a subtitle appears. Sometimes it skips a whole 2 seconds or more, the first dialogue never appearing altogether if it lasts less time than that.

Other than that, and the folder ordering thingy, it seems to work well.
Haven't tested with skins2 or loading rmvb files yet.

Windows xp sp2, amd duron@892MHz, 512MB ram, on-board audio audio and video.

1) If VLC takes more than 0.5second to start your cache or your install is corrupted. This hasn't changed from 0.8 to 0.9.
2) Open should be instantaneous for the same reason.
3) Seeking can be slower, but 1.0 is fixing that.
4) Does your CPU peak ?

Well, apparently, after installing 0.9.4, most of this went away... weird.
About 1) and 2), I've had it taking more than 1 second to load like forever (before 0.8.5 came out), It just took more time in 0.9.2. I ALWAYS use the reset preferences and cache shortcut, THEN uninstall with "Delete preferences and cache" checkbox checked if available, then install the newwer version, also with "Delete preferences and cache" checkbox checked if available. I remeber deleting the cache & preferences by hand and it making no difference at all. Now with 0.9.4, it seems to go back to a little over a second. Opening is blazing fast today for some reason.... no missing frames at all. Perhaps the 0.9.4 installation process fixed something over here
About 4), I now notice it only happens with .idx/.subs subtitles, and the cpu usage does not peak, it only increases a little bit, so I'm not sure whether it's relevant or not.

Audio and video playback quality still kicks ass over here!

I've noticed something new, I apologize if it's been reported before, when i go to "Open file...", then press cancel, VLC takes a some time to recover, eating all cpu available, and part of the gui (the time line and some of the buttons) is mirrored on the bottom of the screen. After about 6 seconds or so, the cpu usage decreases and everything goes back to normal. I remember a similar behavior when I was running a 0.9 nigthly and it was about to crash.

I've found out some files load blazing fast and have no subtitles problems, and then there is the odd one wich does both 1) and 2), only it is a .srt sub with 0.9.4. The files that open an play ok have srts too.

Perhaps it's somewhat related to the fact that the first dialogue in the troublesome flick appears 3 minutes in?

On my end:
1) Vlc takes more time to start.
2) Vlc takes more time to open and start playback, skipping more of the initial frames in the process, of any type of video file (for the first time, if i stop and press play it plays fine) than 0.8.6x did.
3) Vlc takes more time to respond to and skips more frames than 0.8.6 for commands like pause/unpause and seeking.
4) Vlc skips a lot more frames than 0.8.6 did when the first dialogue on a subtitle appears. Sometimes it skips a whole 2 seconds or more, the first dialogue never appearing altogether if it lasts less time than that.

Other than that, and the folder ordering thingy, it seems to work well.
Haven't tested with skins2 or loading rmvb files yet.

Windows xp sp2, amd duron@892MHz, 512MB ram, on-board audio audio and video.

1) If VLC takes more than 0.5second to start your cache or your install is corrupted. This hasn't changed from 0.8 to 0.9.
2) Open should be instantaneous for the same reason.
3) Seeking can be slower, but 1.0 is fixing that.
4) Does your CPU peak ?

Well, apparently, after installing 0.9.4, most of this went away... weird.
About 1) and 2), I've had it taking more than 1 second to load like forever (before 0.8.5 came out), It just took more time in 0.9.2. I ALWAYS use the reset preferences and cache shortcut, THEN uninstall with "Delete preferences and cache" checkbox checked if available, then install the newwer version, also with "Delete preferences and cache" checkbox checked if available. I remeber deleting the cache & preferences by hand and it making no difference at all. Now with 0.9.4, it seems to go back to a little over a second. Opening is blazing fast today for some reason.... no missing frames at all. Perhaps the 0.9.4 installation process fixed something over here
About 4), I now notice it only happens with .idx/.subs subtitles, and the cpu usage does not peak, it only increases a little bit, so I'm not sure whether it's relevant or not.

Audio and video playback quality still kicks --please stay polite-- over here!

I've noticed something new, I apologize if it's been reported before, when i go to "Open file...", then press cancel, VLC takes a some time to recover, eating all cpu available, and part of the gui (the time line and some of the buttons) is mirrored on the bottom of the screen. After about 6 seconds or so, the cpu usage decreases and everything goes back to normal. I remember a similar behavior when I was running a 0.9 nigthly and it was about to crash.

Do you have a dual cpu ?

CPU Usage with different format (with average):

0.8.6i:
-MPEG1: 2-7% (5%)
-MPEG2: 2-9% (4-5%)
-MPEG4: 2-11 (4%)
-DivX5: 8-23 (14%)
-MKV: 61-89% (>80%)
-FLV: 0-2% (1%)
-mp3: 0-1% (0.x%)
all movies with mp3-sound

tested today 0.9.4:
-MPEG1,2,...: 100%
-even mp3: 100%

Result: And so now again only version 0.8.x

I always use the normal design without skins because VLC is minimized (background music) or fullscreen (looking video). Skins make no sense...
VLC was a very good played and saved ressources and I told that a lot of people but when this evolution goes on, I have to look for an other media-player... What the hell are you doing? A little bit better design but no performance...
(System: WinXP SP2, Pentium4 1.8GHz, 1.25GB RAM = Office PC)

CPU Usage with different format (with average):

0.8.6i:
-MPEG1: 2-7% (5%)
-MPEG2: 2-9% (4-5%)
-MPEG4: 2-11 (4%)
-DivX5: 8-23 (14%)
-MKV: 61-89% (>80%)
-FLV: 0-2% (1%)
-mp3: 0-1% (0.x%)
all movies with mp3-sound

tested today 0.9.4:
-MPEG1,2,...: 100%
-even mp3: 100%

Result: And so now again only version 0.8.x

I always use the normal design without skins because VLC is minimized (background music) or fullscreen (looking video). Skins make no sense...
VLC was a very good played and saved ressources and I told that a lot of people but when this evolution goes on, I have to look for an other media-player... What the hell are you doing? A little bit better design but no performance...
(System: WinXP SP2, Pentium4 1.8GHz, 1.25GB RAM = Office PC)

You clearly have a configuration/cache problem. Reset preferences and cache.

Also try to remove libpodcast_plugin.dll from 0.9.4 and see if that helps with CPU usage.

1) If VLC takes more than 0.5second to start your cache or your install is corrupted. This hasn't changed from 0.8 to 0.9.
2) Open should be instantaneous for the same reason.
3) Seeking can be slower, but 1.0 is fixing that.
4) Does your CPU peak ?

Well, apparently, after installing 0.9.4, most of this went away... weird.
About 1) and 2), I've had it taking more than 1 second to load like forever (before 0.8.5 came out), It just took more time in 0.9.2. I ALWAYS use the reset preferences and cache shortcut, THEN uninstall with "Delete preferences and cache" checkbox checked if available, then install the newwer version, also with "Delete preferences and cache" checkbox checked if available. I remeber deleting the cache & preferences by hand and it making no difference at all. Now with 0.9.4, it seems to go back to a little over a second. Opening is blazing fast today for some reason.... no missing frames at all. Perhaps the 0.9.4 installation process fixed something over here
About 4), I now notice it only happens with .idx/.subs subtitles, and the cpu usage does not peak, it only increases a little bit, so I'm not sure whether it's relevant or not.

Audio and video playback quality still kicks --please stay polite-- over here!

I've noticed something new, I apologize if it's been reported before, when i go to "Open file...", then press cancel, VLC takes a some time to recover, eating all cpu available, and part of the gui (the time line and some of the buttons) is mirrored on the bottom of the screen. After about 6 seconds or so, the cpu usage decreases and everything goes back to normal. I remember a similar behavior when I was running a 0.9 nigthly and it was about to crash.

Do you have a dual cpu ?

My cpu is a duron@892MHZ, so no multiple cores here . Strangely enough, vlc stopped doing that gui thingy the very next day. I have absolutely no idea why.

I have a few issues but the two that bother me the most could be solved if I could figure out how to run BOTH 0.9.4x AND 0.8.6x concurrently.

Here are the issues:
1st: when dealing with bad resolution (pixelated or "scratchy" videos specifically) I find that the old option of more cpu processing works nicely. I miss that option, and on the chance that somebody tells me that 9.4 already does all the same processing I will say that I can visually see it does not.

2nd: sound control, many files have normal sound characteristics for most of the video but the music sometimes goes VERY VERY high, high enough that the speakers end up getting crackly, but the speech is just barely high enough for me to hear easily. The 0.8.6x version had a sound normalization feature you would check on. This would then be adjusted by the sound slider for that feature, this worked beautifully. I can not find this feature in the 9.4 version. This is actually a real problem for me.

other issues include the minor things like how the playlist is not as full function as the older versions (but I much MUCH prefer the new ordering function of the new playlist), the fact that the it does take longer for 9.4 to change from file to file, the difficulty of transversing across the network (this might just be that I havn't found how to do it WITH VLC, I use instead the search function) when adding to the playlist, the taskbar running program area (when running) "icon" which after it reloads to start the next file will end up behind the playlist and a few other minor issues.

I would like to add that I have noticed these issues one three different machines, one running win2k, one running winxp and the last is my laptop running Vista Home Premium (32bit).

Having said all those things, there is a reason I did upgrade, I have had a few videos recently that would not play in the 8.6x versions, which 9.4 runs beautifully.

So if somebody can link me to a page where it shows me how to install both versions into a win2k machine AND run both, I would highly appreciate it. Thanks.

For "multi-install", just extract .zip or .7z file to another folder than the installed one and create new shortcut for vlc.exe if you need it. File associations are assigned to installed one and if you need another version, use shortcut to start it.

1st:, you mean post processing option? It is currently disabled for 0.9.x and I don't what is its current situation.

2nd: VLC 0.8.6 and VLC 0.9.x version have different sound default levels. And there is also replay gain control in 0.9.x if you want to try it.

THANKS!!!

that solves most of my issues right there. Will do the "install" later tomorrow or next day and if anything crops up I will ask in this thread.

I was hoping to be able to install it fully in windows but it just didn't occur to me that I could instead just have it run from a folder without doing the install routine.

I will try out the gain adjustment, but I suspect it won't work for what I want.
NOTE: just noticed the peak protection which in conjunction with the gain controls might do what I want but your right I will have to work with it a bit, till I get what I want.

The Post processing is exactly what I was talking about in issue one. Thanks for the information.

As an aside, I take it that 9.x was a complete redo of the code base, including redoing some (if not all) of the codec handling code?

It (0.9.x series) is not complete redesign/rewrite code wise when compared to 0.8.x series. But there are major changes in many areas.

Yes, 0.8.6.x still and stay A Better Player with low system requirements - work on all 32 bit Windows - 95/98/me/nt4/2000/XP!!! But v0.8.6i contains a bug in libwxwidgets_plugin.dll. For fix this bug need replace from v0.8.6d libwxwidgets_plugin.dll And 0.9.x not support 95/98/me/nt4...